


Who's Your Daddy?

by JakkuCrew (fromstars), perlaret



Series: Poe DADmeron [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gay Parents, Gen, Kid Fic, Latino Character, Poe DADmeron, Pre-Canon, not mpreg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-01
Updated: 2016-02-01
Packaged: 2018-05-17 13:25:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5871310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fromstars/pseuds/JakkuCrew, https://archiveofourown.org/users/perlaret/pseuds/perlaret
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Poe Dameron’s sexuality was something of an open secret within the Republic Navy – his daughter, however, was not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Who's Your Daddy?

Poe Dameron’s sexuality was something of an open secret within the Republic Navy – his daughter, however, was not. Being gay was one thing: but fatherhood,  _ that _ might have raised some questions. So when nobody asked Poe if he had any children, Poe didn’t bother to bring it up. He was only twenty-six. People figured his baby was his X-wing, and Poe figured he didn’t need to correct them. 

But she was seven months old, with a sweet smile, soft brown cheeks, thick curls, and eyes so dark they reminded Poe of the space between stars. 

Working for the New Republic kept him away among the actual stars at regular intervals, but that only made days like today worth it. Days when he wasn’t on call, or training, or otherwise preoccupied by the infernal maze of bureaucracy between him and the promotion to Commander his superiors had been hinting at for  _ weeks _ now, felt too few and far between sometimes. Poe loved the thrill of flight, trusted his squadron, believed in what he did – but sometimes it was nice to only worry about mundane, everyday things too.

Like how Maani had forgotten to mention he was almost out of baby formula.

It was an easy fix, and he wasn’t going to fault the nanny for forgetting or bother her about it on her day off, so he loaded his daughter into her sling, shrugged on his not-exactly-regulation leather jacket, and headed out.

It took less than half an hour for him to be spotted. 

“Captain Dameron!” a voice called from the other end of the market aisle. 

Poe shared a private sigh with his daughter before he dumped the carton of formula pods into his shopping basket. When he looked over, he caught the watery gaze of Galvin Cassius, a portly member of the Republic Senate who regularly worked on the Naval expenditures committee. The man was nice enough, but somewhere on the older side of ancient, and entirely overbearing. And he was someone Poe had to keep appeased, if only because the man had approved the budget which had allowed him to custom paint and kit out  _ Black One _ . 

“Senator Cassius,” he smiled, inclining his head in lieu of a salute. “Good to see you.” 

“And you as well,” Cassius said, leaning forward on his cane. “I heard about your recent work in the Ixtlar sector. Quite the flying, from the report I read. Good work all around.”

“Thank you, sir,” Poe said, not without pride. It had been an amazing flight, and he stood a little straighter for remembering it. Not that the smuggling ring his squad had come up against really stood much of a chance at evading Republic forces, but preventing a small fleet of disorganized pirates from cutting off a needed trade route was still important. It’d taken a hefty measure of strategy and planning, but an even bigger share of quick thinking to successfully pull off. Poe had taken down three  _ XS Stock Light Freighters _ himself, and his team had apprehended the ringleader of the operation. 

“Rumor has it that it’s put you at the top of the list for promotions,” the Senator added, nodding as if he’d orchestrated the whole affair himself. “Must be quite the thrill.”

“Just rumor so far,” Poe said, aiming for diplomatic. His daughter coughed then, a tiny sound that distracted them both from the subject at hand. Cassius startled, before letting out a small ‘oh’ of sudden interest. 

“I wasn’t aware you had family on Hosnian Prime,” Cassius remarked, tilting his head to get a better look at the baby tucked against Poe’s chest. “Or is someone visiting? A niece or cousin, perhaps?”

Poe cleared his throat. It was always inevitable that someone would ask, he reminded himself. There were innumerable reasons why it rarely came up. For one, the Republic’s standard options for off-barracks singles residences provided him with more than enough room for both himself and Kaera, meaning he’d never bothered to ask for family accommodations. And two, Poe was comfortable with having Maani as his full-time nanny. He’d been looked after as an infant by his grandfather, and had turned out perfectly fine – experience told him that service was no impediment to good parenthood. And although his own family was too far away for his comfort, Maani was a friend of a cousin’s, making her the next best thing.  

“My daughter, actually. Her name is Kaera.” He waved one of her tiny hands with a gentle waggle of her wrist. Kaera burbled pleasantly. 

“Well  _ hello, _ Kaera.” Cassius paused mid-smile, squinty eyes squinting further. “...If it’s not too presumptuous to mention, Captain, I was rather under the impression that you were gay.”

Poe blinked. Twice. Poe looked down at his daughter, eyes widening and brain launching – as it always did under duress – straight for  _ smartass _ . Kaera, smart girl that she was, grinned in delight at her father’s comical face. 

“Kaera, did you  _ know? _ ” he gasped. “–Where’d you even  _ come _ from?!” He looked back toward the Senator and then had to fight to maintain his faux horror, because the instinct to break into laughter at Cassius’s embarrassed grimace was almost overwhelming. 

“I can’t believe this,” Poe said mournfully, shaking his head. “What if she’s some kind of sleeper-cell plant? Can I ever be sure? I’ve been completely hoodwinked.”

“Yes. Well.” Cassius had flushed an almost alarming shade of red, at an uncharacteristic loss for words. Poe gave himself until the count of three to relish in the old man’s obvious discomfort before he took pity on him. Only because Poe didn’t want to be  _ personally _ responsible for giving an elderly member of the New Republic’s Senate an aneurysm, thereby compromising future committee funding decisions that would have gone in the navy’s favor. Otherwise? The guy kind of deserved it.

“You’re not wrong, Sir,” Poe said with deliberate cheerfulness, reeling the the sarcasm all the way back in and giving the Senator his most charming smile, the kind one might interpret as an invitation to join in on the joke. “We’re a little unconventional, but it’s family.”

“Oh, yes. Yes, of course,” Cassius agreed hurriedly, clearly recognizing an emergency parachute when he saw it and doing some politically-minded backtracking of his own. “And quite the darling addition she appears to be. I’m extraordinarily glad to have met her, Captain.” 

He straightened, thin lips spreading into a thinner smile. “Now it’s no wonder why you’ve demonstrated such remarkable responsibility within your squadron. You’ve surely become old hand at it, now that you’re parenting. I see why you’ve shown such readiness for command.” 

“It’s definitely taught me to appreciate that my squadron doesn’t have colic, Senator. Makes things much easier in comparison,” Poe agreed with good humor, gently ruffling his daughter’s curls. “And it opened my eyes to how strongly I feel about protecting the rest of my team.” 

“Small favors,” the senator nodded, all arcane gravitas once again. “The Republic senate may not have colic, but unfortunately, tantrums are still rather common.” 

“The ups and downs of democracy,” Poe said with a sympathetic laugh. Kaera shifted against him again, the ball of her foot pressing into his stomach, and he quickly recognized she was close to getting restless. He pressed a hand to her back soothingly and leveraged Cassius an apologetic look. “I’m afraid I have to excuse myself, sir. Kaera here will be getting hungry very soon, and I have yet to complete today’s mission,” he said, pointedly lifting the basket of formula pods into view. 

“Of course, of course. Don’t let me keep you – we wouldn’t want to compromise that impressive track record of yours,” Cassius said, shuffling to the side of the aisle to let another shopper pass. “Best of luck, Captain. I look forward to hearing the good news soon.”

“Thank you for your confidence, Senator. Have a good day,” Poe said, offering one last nod before he turned to depart, formula still in hand. Once out of the senator’s sight, he sighed again, feeling the taut wires of tension in his shoulders start to loosen. 

Bullet dodged. 

Poe looked down, and Kaera sniffled expectantly, squirming against his chest as she began to gnaw on the edge of his leather jacket. “Almost done,” Poe assured her, tucking an arm under her body so that he could push her upward and press a kiss against her chubby cheek. “Papa’s sorry the funny old man distracted him, it was terrible and he was being really awkward.” 

Kaera’s little gurgle that followed sounded unusually grave, and Poe smiled as he took a spot in the shortest line, imaging what sort of things his darling girl might say one day, once she learned to talk. 

“No, you’re absolutely right,  _ Mijita, _ ” he whispered conspiratorially into her soft baby curls. “If he had asked who your mother was,  _ that _ would have been really awkward. Definitely much worse.”

In the Republic, Poe Dameron’s sexuality was a well-known fact, but the question of his daughter’s parentage was another matter entirely. And some things, he figured, were better left where they were: behind, in the quiet dark between the stars. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thoughts and comments are always appreciated!


End file.
